Governance

The Maharashtra government’s handling of the 2021 lockdown holds lessons for students of public policy about how a simple tweak in government attitude and policy could prevent so many tragedies and prove beneficial for so many. In April 2020, the sudden closure of rail services and public transport forced migrant workers in many states to flee on trucks, cycles, cement mixers and on foot for hundreds of kilometers back to their villages facing death, starvation and suffering.  Forced by the public outcry, the railways did start Shramik trains. But the 4621 Shramik trains that ferried 63 lakh passengers in 2020-21…

A group of individuals and members of civil society organisations including Whitefield Rising, Bangalore Apartment Federation, and Sochara, have written to the Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, highlighting major issues in COVID Management, with suggestions and asks for immediate steps. Here's the letter Dear Shri Yediyurappa, Bengaluru urban and rural is in an extremely serious state with a large number of COVID patients in need of medical resources, from hospital beds, to oxygen infrastructure to ICUs and ventilators. Volunteers and family members of patients are making desperate calls and sending messages to find sources to help those in need. We…

The devastation that we see around us today caused by the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, is not just because of the rates of contagion and the virulence of the disease, but also — and perhaps, more significantly — because of the crunch in life-saving resources. Especially something we have always taken for granted — Oxygen.  But why did the country run short of oxygen and have we been able to find solutions to tide over the shortage? Although oxygen is the element primarily responsible for sustaining life on planet Earth and constitutes 21% of the atmosphere, oxygen…

In the view of the rapidly rising COVID cases and deaths in entire families, the State government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have, over the last two days, ordered measures to deal with emergency requirements such as setting up of ICU beds, support for orphaned children, monitoring oxygen supply and modifying home-isolation protocols. While the direction of oxygen monitoring and supply came after the tragedy at the Chamarajanagar district hospital, where 23 COVID patients succumbed due to lack of oxygen, the government also appointed IAS officers to take care of children orphaned due to the pandemic. A nodal…

Little did Kirtee Bhai, who in a webinar had referred to ‘Delhi’ as a ‘way of governance model’ for cities, imagine that just a few months later Delhi would be would be transformed literally into a municipality. Kirtee Bhai, a member of the first urban commission constituted in 1986, was making a comparison between Delhi and Mumbai, terming the former with a legislature as a better model for city governance. A few weeks back, the central government passed an amendment in the Government of National Capital Delhi Act of 1991 (GNCTD), turning Delhi city-state into an adjunct of the central government…

“Urban administration and urban planning in India is undergoing a major change,” says Rajneesh, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban development. “Himachal Pradesh, a predominantly rural state, has to make this transition given that urbanisation is a fact of life and new ULBs (Urban Local bodies) must be strengthened”. This was the rationale given by the Himachal Pradesh government to form three new municipal corporations to administer Solan, Palampur and Mandi . While Solan is a fast growing town with several educational institutions of higher studies and a bustling business community, Palampur in Kangra district is a popular tea town and home to…

BBMP, Bengaluru's city government has never met its property tax targets in all these years. It wants to change that in 2021 - by revising the calculation, increasing the tax net, and verifying property data. In its yearly budget, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) fixed 2,800 crores as its property tax target for 2021-2022. This is lesser than the target of 3,500 cr. of last year, perhaps because BBMP was only able to meet 57% of that target (around 2000 cr.). The budget also proposed changing the tax calculation basis from the Unit Area Value System to Capital Value System.…

Like every civic body, BBMP had its moment of truth in 2020 because of the pandemic. Revenues plummeted as commercial activity slumped during the lockdown. Public health and medical demands soared. Employees were shunted around for emergency tasks, throwing administrative controls into disarray.  Dividing lines between State and civic duties were blurred: BBMP became a government department delivering welfare services to migrants under a lockdown. State departmental heads monitored and supervised civic functions. Ad hoc staff was hastily added to run COVID contact and testing facilities.   Formal citizen involvement was undermined, social distancing hampered protests and courts became dormant. The government used the opportunity…

The recent TN Assembly Elections saw the lowest voter turnout in the state in the past three elections. Chennai’s overall voter turnout stood at 59.06%, with only four constituencies registering turnout higher than 60%.What could explain the low turnout is that many eligible voters chose to sit it out on polling day and also that the inaccuracies in the voter rolls contributed to the issue. There have been instances of unexplained deletion of names of voters who found themselves unable to exercise their franchise in the assembly elections. Names of entire families who voted as recently as the Lok Sabha…

O Delhie Mahra Pahda ra dil Shimla, mahra desha ra dil, o delhie, mahre desha ra dil Shimla----A pahari dialect song sung across the Himachal, meaning: “hey Delhi, the heart of the mountains is Shimla, hey Delhi, our Nations heart is also Shimla”. The first reaction was one of joy and pride. For one who has lived there and served for five years as its deputy mayor, Shimla’s number one all-India ranking in the Ease of Living (EOL) index recently released by the union government in the less than one million population category, sounded stupendous. But it was not long…